Wang Jun Xian's Conversion Story

4/2/17

His name is 王俊賢 Wang Jun Xian, and he met Sister missionaries on the street if I remember right. He started meeting with Elders because of the rule we have in our mission that if they are single they have to meet with missionaries of the same gender. By the time I had gotten here, he was well on his way to baptism and had received most of the lessons. When they started meeting with him, he was in a pretty bad state. He hardly got any sleep and just wasn't happy. He didn't have good friends, and they wanted to go out drinking with him all the time. The Elders before me invited him to exercise daily and get more sleep as part of the word of wisdom, and he started doing it as well as reading scriptures and praying. He said it completely reversed his life. During the day he would have so much more energy, and he became a lot more healthy. As he started living the word of wisdom and learning the gospel, he said he became happier and happier, and eventually decided to leave behind all his friends from before in search of new and better friends that would actually make him a better person. Now he has a picture of the temple as his home screen on his phone, and wants to introduce his girlfriend in China to the gospel so they can get married in the temple. He sharpens knives professionally and sells top of the line kitchen knives for a living. Super cool!!!

Excel and Jedi Council

 3/2/17

Not a ton happened last week so I am honestly a little bit at a loss of what to write about this last week. We went on exchanges with the Assistants to the President, had Jedi Council (Missionary Leadership Council with the President, Zone Leaders, and Sister Training Leaders to discuss the needs of the mission), and then got an online copy of our ward list that we got permission to access because it is through our mission emails. The last one is so dope! I can't tell you how excited I was to get on a google spreadsheet and see all of the less actives right there where we could take them and organize them by address or name! Technology is incredible! 

    The funniest part of last week was definitely April 1. We had completely forgotten it was April Fools until a a Taiwanese Sister called us in the morning and told us that her also Taiwanese (rare companionship) companion had ran off and she couldn't find her. She asked if we could call President Jergensen for her, but by then we had realized it was April Fools. Not to be deterred, she called President Jergensen herself and told him her companion had gone home. Now, her companion has actually been struggling with homesickness and a lack of desire to do missionary work, so you can imagine President Jergensen's reaction. After leading him on for a few minutes she finally told him it was April Fools and he just thought it was hilarious, especially because she had done the exact same thing to him last year.

    Here is the best part. She then tried to recruit him to help her trick a companionship in her district that was already on to her and knew she was going to trick them on April Fools. President Jergensen declined, but then guess who got involved? Yep. Yours truly. So we send a referral to the Elders with a home phone number of the Sisters so they wouldn't recognize it, and then tell them to call it that morning. They did, and then Sister Lin set up with them for that night. Boy were they surprised when the Sisters walked up to the chapel that night and said, "Hi! I'm Mrs. Chen and this is my husband Mr. Chen." They never saw it coming. 

   I'd like to just quickly finish with a quote from a talk by Dallin H. Oaks I read this last week: "Desires dictate our priorities, priorities shape our choices, and choices determine our actions. The desires we act on determine our changing, our achieving, and our becoming. To achieve our eternal destiny, we will desire and work for the qualities required to become an eternal being." I love that idea. What do we truly want in life? D&C 137:9 says that we will be judged according to works, and our works are according to our desire. I know that by a careful evaluation of what we really desire in life, we can find what we still need to change to be in line with God's will. Have a wonderful week!!

DICKSON!!!

3/26/17

bought a camera charger last week. Sorry, been busy... Also, I only have two transfers left so it seems like at the end of the mission the letter-writing just gets kind of lazy. Sorry... New companion (last companion), I've started writing down all the names of important people I want to remember in my areas so I can write little paragraphs at home to remember them, Elder Puzey loves to clean (+++=++), another of my previous companions is engaged (15 companions in all, more than most missionaries by a long-shot), Sister Glory Lim from Viewmont High School just moved into our zone and even into our district, MLC this upcoming week (that meeting with all the zone leaders and the mission president that is super fun!!!), and had meetings with the stake, with the ward, and the ward correlation meeting on Sunday (all-in-all like 3.5 hours of meetings Sunday morning [ya we are important {not}]). Don't know what else to say about last week.

Quickly glanced at the letter and noticed the part about Mary. I will include more thoughts next week, but I want to just quickly share something I have been pondering on this last week: "You don't have to be first, but you darn well better be the last to quit." That has been my motto for a week or so now. The thing about being the last to quit--everyone can do it. There will never be a person better than another at 'not quitting'. That is how people see success. That is how Sarah is doing so well at art, that is how I scraped through with a 4.0. I know in my case it was certainly not a case of intelligence, but rather one of "this is what I want and I am going to get it". Mary, I know you are so good at not quitting, and if you don't ever quit you will never do anything you will regret, because you tried. You are going to do amazing things of your own, so find what is your own. Never quit.

Here is my mission grandson!

Pancakes for breakfast every morning.  

All the missionary bikes at district meeting.

a lot of different stuff, self-explanatory probably

Yoda Funktown

3/19/17

Last week was crazy busy! I went on two exchanges, we had Elder Funk of the Seventy and his wife come to visit our mission and had a half-mission conference, and then interviews with the President! In between all of that we just had lesson after lesson. So much fun!! Here are some of the thoughts and insights from the week of exchanges and conferences and interviews:

• D&C 44:2, difference between being faithful and exercising faith to have the Spirit with us during meetings.
• Receiving correction from others is hard, but if you are humble enough then you can learn much.
• Roll up your sleeves: get ready to work hard and thrust in your sickle with all your might to bring people closer to baptism!!
• Measure everything you do as a missionary against the doctrine of Christ (faith, repentance, etc.).
• Making sure you are doing good things is important, but also decide what you are NOT going to do (i.e. waste time, fall asleep during studies).
• A missionary only really needs to things to be successful--faith and skill.
• Say little prayers throughout the day to remember Heavenly Father.
• Spending lots of time preparing lessons and then ready to depart from your plan at the slightest nudge from the Spirit.
• It doesn't matter if you are following the crowd or going against the crowd. Just follow Christ.
• Turn your phone off during lessons or interactions with others.
• Fill your daily plan with activities, but more importantly as many names as you can.
• Doctrines and principles don't change, practices and procedures changes.

Another fun thing we did this week is doorbell-ditch our new bishop. He is really stressed about his new calling, and has lots of doubts whether or not he can carry out his added responsibilities. What we decided to do is take this huge cardboard Yoda thing, write on the back of it 願傳教士的支持與你同在 (May the 'support of the missionaries' be with you), and then leave it on his doorstep. Really hard when everyone in Taiwan lives in an apartment building with a security guard at the bottom! We may or may not have snuck in, gotten lucky he lived on the bottom floor, left the poster on what we hope is his doorstep (still not sure), and snuck out. Well, that must be why the CIA recruits return missionaries so much. We are just that 厲害. Hope you all have a wonderful week!

worker and customer??